The 87th Academy Awards in Los Angeles was truly special for Georgia this time. Famous Georgian Director Zaza Urushadze’s Georgian-Estonian movie “Tangerines”
was fighting for Oscars in the “Best Foreign Language Film” category. The leading roles were played by Georgian actors Giorgi Nakashidze, Mikheil Meskhi and Estonian stars Lembit Ulfsak, Elmo Nuganen and Raivo Trass.

The plot of the Georgian-Estonian production shows an Estonian family in Abkhazia whose house becomes a place where enemies - a Georgian and a Chechen

soldier - find themselves.Unfortunately, “Tangerines” did not receive the award. The Polish movie “Ida” was declared the winner. Departure of Georgian actors to Los Angeles was preceded and succeeded by some loud stories.

$50 a day…

First there was Georgian actor Giorgi Nakashidze’s public statement that the actors who were going to the ceremony were only given $420 each for the entire week by the Ministry of Culture, adding that it is a shame for the Ministry to send actors to so big an event with such a ridiculously small sum of money. American website 9gag.com has published an entry titled “Shame on Georgian Government!”. The entry informs: “Government gave $420 to actors for a 7-day trip to Oscars. That’s $50 a day.

Stuck in Istanbul

Georgian actors hit a snag on their way to Oscars. They got stuck in Istanbul airport on February 19th on their flight to Los Angeles. Giorgi Nakashidze published a video on his Facebook page commenting “Today, all flights from Istanbul Airport have been delayed due to intense snowfall. Unfortunately, instead of flying to Los Angeles we are now stranded in Istanbul until the weather improves, with little hope that the sky will clear today. Still, the snowfall is very strong and all the people gathered here are really upset. This video is a recording of a conflict between the airport staff and displeased travelers. It’s like I’m in one of Ryazanov’s movies. If nothing changes, we’ll have to participate in Oscar night from Istanbul,” Giorgi wrote.

Jessica Chastain awarded Zaza Urushadze

Eventually they arrived to Hollywood.On night before the main award ceremony, director of Tangerines Zaza Urushadze received the Certificate of No­­­mination for Academy Awards. The certificate was handed over to him by the famo­us Hollywood star Jessica Cha­stain.

Misha Meskhi jealous of Johnny Depp

Misha Meskhi, who playes one of the leading roles in the Georgian-Estonian movie, departed from the Academy Awards ceremony in a limousine. Ia Sukhitashvili, the actor’s wife and also a famous actress herself, quipped to him “Say hello to Johnny Depp for me” when he was leaving. As she said herself, Misha was very jealous of the Hollywood star.

Falling asleep… at Oscars

Apparently, the 87th Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles was either too festive or too tedious for some guests to endure, as many joked afterwards… A photo, named “Gaga’s performance. Not enough for this guy,” published by journalist Landon Ross depicted Misha Meskhi asleep in his chair during Lady Gaga’s performance. His colleague Giorgi Nakashidze could not resist taking a photo of him.

“I finally woke up”

Misha Meskhi wrote on his Facebook page after returning from Los Angeles: “Hello, my friends, I finally woke up. I am sorry that I did not manage to bring home the ‘golden boy’. It’s just one of life’s rules, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. I love you very much. I don’t know whether it is necessary to apologize or not, but my main purpose in this life has always been to please you, as my grandfather did when he used to play in Tbilisi Dynamo. I have always thought that in a nation of 3 million, the victory of one man is the triumph of the whole country. We will try to meet your expectations and bring the ‘golden boy’ home next time.”